Everyone is in a quandary, not knowing on whom to call. Our so-called authorities are paralysed and visibly so because they do not know what end of the stick to whip this dragon, called COVID-19, with. This pestilence has cunning ways of manifesting itself and has the ability of putting everyone at risk even those presumably with the appropriate protective gear.
Yet, with all what is happening around us, God is still sitting on His throne in the heavenly realms, high and lifted up. He has not changed and never will. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. The present times are symptomatic of when God has decided to take stock of His people – a time when He wants to remind humanity that He made the world and although Satan and his cohorts seem to be running it, He is not an absentee God. He still reigns supreme whether we realise this or not.
Every now and then God rocks the boat to catch our attention. He did it when He scattered the people who were building the Tower of Babel - whose ambition was to reach up to the heavens. He confounded their tongues and confusion ensued. He razed Sodom and Gomorrah to the ground when He rained sulphur and fire on these two cities renowned for their unrighteous living.
At the height of Man’s disobedience, God sent the flood that wiped out humanity from the face of the earth, preserving only eight righteous men and women. Several times, He permitted foreign armies to manhandle the Children of Israel, His chosen possession, and even sent them into exile so they could learn from their bitter experience. However, as a stiff-necked people, their bad habits and wicked ways would resurface. This brings to mind what Jesus said to His disciples under different circumstances. “O unbelieving and perverse generation .... How long shall I put up with you?” (Matthew 17:17)
Reminder of the bronze snake
Once God unleashed venomous snakes on the Children of Israel when they grew “... impatient on the way; ... and spoke against Moses and said, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!” (Numbers 21:4-5) For grumbling, they were bitten by these snakes and many Israelites died. They repented of their sins and prayed that God would take the snakes away from them. God asked Moses to “make a bronze snake and put it on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” (verse 8) Moses did as God had ordered and all those who looked at the bronze snake lived.” (Numbers 21:9) This story portrayed when Jesus was lifted up on the cross of Calvary that every sinner who looked to the cross, would receive healing. God cares for our well-being, reach out to Him.
I personally do not believe that God sent the corona virus plague to the world. I think He is using this incident to remind humanity that our Saviour and Creator is still alive, not dead; that when we run to Him, we would be saved because He would bring relief to everyone who calls upon the name of His son, Jesus our Lord.
This pandemic should be an eye-opener to what God represents for us, that He still cares. Whatever the conspiracy, God is out to protect humanity in its entirety.
It is no coincidence also that God has silenced and frustrated every plan of the evil one and his cohorts. He will continue to expose their works of darkness. Their plans to dispossess the earth of God’s first creation will fall flat on its face. Whatever inhuman plans they have woven in the dark will be foiled in Jesus’ name. “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, “who has compassion on you.” (Isaiah 45:10)
We should be thinking of seizing the moment to renew broken relationships with our God and to be at peace with our neighbours. We must cease living anyhow and put an absolute halt to wayward living; stop carrying on as if God matters little in our daily lives. This is the day God has made so we could spend time in His presence as we seek His face daily in the home setting.
All the false religions have gone underground after their ill-intentions have been exposed for not only using the name of the Lord in vain but enriching themselves in the process. All other untoward practices have come to a halt giving way to reflections on the true purpose of life.
This wind is a precursor to the final stage leading to the end-times predicted in the Bible - Jesus’ second coming.
This is a window of opportunity for humanity to be right with the only wise God; to say to Him, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139:23-24)
We have for ages been playing God and have not measured up in God’s sight. God wants us to hit the RESET button. We must go back to the roots, the very foundation of our beings - built on family life. For when the family norms are sacrosanct and intact, then we can strengthen community bonds and reach out to our societies on the basis of which the national fabric can be knit. Such a family setting has the potential of building a cohesive nation state.
In the past five decades humanity has embarked on breaking barriers, and opening new frontiers, driven by greed and personal pride. This motive has given rise to the rat-race defined as ‘everyone for himself, God for us all.’ It was never intended to be that way. Humanity is bonding, not estranging people based on the artificial divide of the wealthy and deprived or on the colour of one’s skin. Humankind has lost track of its priorities, it has not been able to surmount its basic needs but is reaching for the moon.
God wants us to rethink; our passage on earth is a springboard to eternal life not an end in itself. Return to me! Jesus reminds us: “... apart from me you can do nothing!” (John 15:5b)
